Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Monday said the Bureau of Immigration (BI) will take into custody the foreigners rescued during the June 27, 2023 raid of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) facility in Las Pinas City.
Remulla said the BI custody of the foreigners was agreed upon during a meeting between the DOJ and the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) which conducted the raid that led to the filing of human trafficking complaints against five Chinese nationals.
In a press briefing, Remulla said the foreigners are under “legal custody because they under investigation for violation of their visas or the conditions of their visas,”
“The licenses of these POGOs were canceled by PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) which gives rise to the fact that these are already illegal,” Remulla said.
Once the BI takes legal custody of these foreigners, Remulla stressed that this will “clarify a lot of issues about the habeas corpus petitions being filed because they are being held for cause by the Bureau of Immigration.”
“Violations of the conditions of the visa is enough for the Bureau of Immigration to hold them indefinitely under custody,” he said.
“The rights of persons who enter our country is always subject to the conditions set forth by the visa issued to them and visas are conditionally privileged documents given by the state to allow entry into the country,” Remulla pointed out.
In the meantime, he said the foreigners will be kept in the Las Pinas City quarters of the POGO where they were raided because we do not have the facilities in the BI to keep them.
Remulla said about 2,700 persons, including Filipinos, were rescued by the PNP-ACG, even as he noted that around 1,000 foreigners are still being kept in custody at the POGO facility after hundreds have already been deported or repatriated.
“There are 17 nationalities of persons who were caught in Las Pinas,” he said, adding that “the embassies have been coordinating with us about the deportation or repatriation of many of them.”
When asked how many of the foreigners will be deported or repatriated, Remulla said: “That will depend but we want the repatriation with condition that they will be blacklisted because if they were engaged in any illegal activity then we should not admit them back into the country.”